A New Masonic Temple.

ment of the Drury Lane Masonic Temple . The whole of the internal fittings , furniture , and jewels of the lodge were supplied by Bro . George Kenning , of Little Britain , and Great Queen-street , and the decorative work has been admirably carried out under the personal superintendence of Mr . Fred . Labhart , of the Drury Lane Theatre .

At the meeting last week , to which reference was briefly made in our issue of the I 2 lh inst ., the work of the acting Worshipful Master and his officers was by no means a sinecure . The agenda , indeed , was as formidable as any Master greedy for work could reasonably desire . Unquestionably the admonition of the Grand Secretary , Bro . Shadwell H . Clerke , at the consecration meeting , to " hasten slowly " is being fully acted upon by the moving spirits of the Drury Lane Lodge . In every such case , where

success is certain , and popularity already ensured , there is certain to be a rush of candidates wishful to participate in that eclat which is expected from a prosperous scheme ; and if we may judge from the menu of last Tuesdav afternoon , our congratulations must be extended to the officers of the lodge upon the selection they have made from the doubtless large number of applications that have been handed in for admission to the " mysteries and privileges " of the Drury Lane Lodge .

Our brethren will readily preceive the amount of work thus presented to the youthful lodge , and the manner in which the whole of the work was performed was but that which might have been anticipated under the grand auspices which beamed upon this unique body of Masons at its inception .

Review.

REVIEW .

SECOND NOTICE . THE HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY . Vol . V . By ROBERT FREKE GOULD , P . G . S . D . London r Thomas C . Jack , 45 , Ludgate-hill , E . C . 1886 . Nothing illustrates more clearly the amazing progress that has been made of late years in Masonic research than the early portion of Bro . Gould ' s Chapter on the " History of the Grand Lodges of Ireland . " Bro . Findel , whose " History of Freemasonry " is a work of recognised value ,

writing only some 20 years since , describes the history of the Craft in Ireland "before the year 1730 " as being " enveloped in complete darkness , " and regards with suspicion the statement of Mitchell as to " the founding in the year 1726 of a Provincial Grand Lodge at Munster by the English Grand Lodge , " though whether his suspicion is directed only to the alleged English origin of the said Provincial Grand Lodge , or to the existence at all of any such ruling body in Munster , is not so manifest . Bro . Gould ,

however , is able to establish the fact of there having been both a Grand Lodge and a lodge at Cork , the capital of the Province of Munster , in 1726 , there being in the present possession of the Deputy P . G . M . of Munster an old minute book , containing records of both these bodies , dating from December , 1726 . He tells us also that Bro . Neilson has traced "in the minute books of the Corporation of Cork , under Deeember 2 , 1725 , " the entry of a resolution , or motion , to the effect " that a charter be issued out for the

Master , Wardens , and Society of Freemasons , according to their petition , there being a further entry , " under January 31 , 1726 , " referring to the same petition , worded as follows * . " Thc Charter of Freemasons being this day read in Council , it is ordered that the further consideration of said Charter be referred to next Council , and that Alderman Phillips , Mr . Croner , Foulks Austin , and Commissioner Speaker do inspect same . " And

Bro . Gould has been more fortunate than even Bro . Neilson , having discovered a still earlier notice of ihe Grand Lodge " in the London Journal—July 17 , 1725 , viz ., ' From the same Kingdom ( Ireland ) we have advice that ihcSociety of Freemasonshzd met , and chose the Earl of Ross Great Master for the year ensuing . ' " It is not stated in this last excerpt—and the author has noted the omission—of what body the Earl of Ross was elected " Great

Master for the year ensuing ; " but we see no objection to Bro . Gould ' s surmise that the body referred to was the Grand Lodge of Munster . But whether the surmise is correct or not , we have it in evidence that news reached the London Journal , and by it was published on 17 th July , 1725 , to the effect that the Freemasons in Ireland had met and chosen the Earl of Ross for their " Great Master for ths year ensuing . " Another circumstance

will strike the reader , namely , that the announcement thus fortunately extracted from the London Journal , under the date in question , is worded as if ihe meeting of the Society and its election of a " Great Master" had taken place in accordance with laws , or usages , for some time established , and not as if it were a first meeting called for the first time for the express purpose of choosing a " Great Master . " At all events , Bro . Gould has

been able to penetrate to the extent of five years " before the year 1730 , " beyond which , according to Findel , the history of Freemasonry in Ireland is " tnveloped in complete darkness , " while his discoveries of the early minutes of the Grand Lodge of Munster from 1726 to 1733 must dispel the suspicions which , in the absence of any evidence , so naturally occurred to the mind of that careful and discreet historian .

As regards the early minutes referred to , we gather from the first entry dated 27 th December , 1726 , that the Hon . James O'Brien was unanimously elected Grand Master for the ensuing year , and appointed Springett Penn , Esq ., as his Deputy . The same Hon . James O'Brien was elected to the same office on 24 th June , 1728 , Robt . Longfield being appointed his Deputy . On the 24 th June , 1730 , Col . Maynard was elected Grand Master ,

and Mr . Thomas Riggs , D . G . M ., and on 9 th August , 173 1 , James Lord Kingston , the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge in Dublin of 1730 , was appointed to the same position in the Grand Lodge of Munster . We gather likewise that a code of regulations for the government of the Society was agreed to at a Grand Lodge held in Cork on St . John the Evangelist ' s Day ( 27 th December ) , 1728 , there being , however , no minute tne occasion i 1001 lliese

ot the proceedings on , ne m Keguialions lays it down " That the Master and Wardens of each Lodge take care that their Lodge be furnished with the Constitution , printed in London in yc year of Masonry 5723 , Anno Dom . 1723 , Entitled . the Constitution of Free Masons , containing the History , Charges , Regulations , & c , of THAT MOST ANCIENT AND RT . WORSHIPFUL F RATERNITV , " and it is just possible that to the introduction of this Regulation may be traced the alleged English origin of the " Provincial Grand Lodge at Munster , " , mentioned by

Review.

Mitchell and doubted by Findel . We learn also that on 24 th June , 1730 , the Munster Grand Lodge had under its consideration two applications , one " from some brethren at Waterford to have Warrant from our Grand Lodge for assembling and holding Regular Lodges there , according to ancientcostome of Masonry , " and the other for a like purpose " from some Brethren at Clonmell . " These meetings , as well as the meetings of the

private lodge , were held at the house of Herbert Phaire , and it would appear from the wording of the Regulations , as well as of some of the Minutes , that this private lodge , now No . ' i on the roll of Ireland , was by no means the onl y organised subordinate body in the province . These particulars , heretofore comparatively unknown to the Craft , form a welcome addition to our meagre knowledge of Irish Masonic history , but

it is to be regretted that Bro . Gould ' s laborious investigations have not been more successful , especially in regard to the Grand Lodge in Dublin , and the relations existing between it and the Grand Lodge of Munster . In saying this , we are not casting any reflection on Bro . Gould , whose misfortune , not whose fault it is , that his researches have not yielded that

further knowledge which he and we and everyone else interested in Masonic history must so ardently wish for . We have already shown that he has carried us far beyond the point which any previous writer had attained , and the fact of his not having carried us still further must be attributed to the paucity of early authentic records .

As regards the brethren in Dublin , Bro . Gould gives Spratt as his authority for the statement "that many Freemasons " took part in the ceremony of leveling the " Footstone" of the Parliament House in Dublin on February 3 , 1728 ( 1728-9 ) , when Lord Carteret ( Lord Lieutenant ) , and other distinguished noblemen were present , and "the Masons drank To the King and the Craft . " He also tells us that " according to Milliken , " " the

brethren dined together on February 3 , 1728-9 , ' and there being no lodge in Dublin , resolved , as was the case in London in 1717 , to erect a Grand Lodge in Dublin , and invited the Grand Provincial of Munster , Lord Kingston , to take the Grand National Chair of Ireland , which honour his lordship readily accepted , " the author pointing out , however , that " Lord Kingston was not Grand Master of the independent Grand Lodge at Cork

until August 9 , 1731 , though he may have been , and probably was , a member of that body at an earlier date . " The early records , however , have been destroyed or lost , and with all his research , Bro . Gould has been able to put together only the mere skeleton of what he would have recorded , had fortune been more favourable . Again , the difficulty of pursuing a connected story is enhanced by the eccentricities which affect the numerical ordering

of the Irish lodges . Yet it is surprising how well , in the face of all these difficulties , and the very stringent regulation in Ireland against the publication of lodge proceedings , Bro . Gould has succeeded in this most arduous portion ofhis task . It vvill perhaps be considered a rather poor compliment if we say that he has done more towards illustrating the history of Irish Masonry than all other writers who have gone before , the latter having done so little in this direction . It will be more to his taste—and to his credit

likewise—if we declare that his story , as unfolded in the pages of this chapter , is about ihe only one we have met with which is worthy of being designated a "History of the Grand Lodges of Ireland . " Findel ' s probably is as respectable an account as anyone could have written twenty years ago in the then state our knowledge . But we do not know of any other that is worth reading , and from Findel to Gould is an immense stride , of the extent of which only those who will be at the pains pf comparing the two versions can form any idea .

Among th » events which the author has thought worthy of referring to may be mentioned the constitution , early in 1749 , of the Grand Master ' s Lodge , and the grant of a warrant by Mother Kilwinning ( Scotland ) to the " High Knights Templars of Ireland Kilwinning Lodge" in Dublin in the year 1779 . Bro . Gould points out as being not a little curious that , though the " Early Grand Encampment of Ireland " and the present " Kilwinning

Preceptory " of Dublin had their origin from this lodge , the Charter " simply authorised the formation of a lodge , ' Mother Kilwinning' never having worked any other than the Three Degrees , and those only since the third decade of the last century . " He also , almost as a matter of necessity , makes reference to the Hon . Mrs . Aldworth—the lady Freemason—and there is likewise much else that is worth looking into from the light it throws upon

the proceedings of our Irish brethren , both generally and in the case of particular lodges . Bro . Gould , however , has not exhausted his information about Ireland in this chapter , in the concluding paragraph of which he tells us " the further history of the Grand Lodges of Ireland will be resumed in Chapter XXX ., and concluded in the Appendix . " He also promises that

" ihe subject oi Military or Regimental Lodges—which had their origin m Ireland—will be pursued with some fulness in the former , whilst the general statistics of Irish Freemasonry will be found collected in the latter . " Therefore we have done with Ireland ( or the present , and in our next article shall pass under review Chapter XXII ., containing the " History of the Grand Lodge of Scotland . "

PRINCE EDWIN , the brother of Athelstan , is a name well-known in our Masonic legends , though he is called the son , instead of the brother . The Harleian MS . 1942 omits Edwin's name , and seems to refer everything to the King . The Sloane MS . calls Edwin Ladrian , and the Lodge of Hope MS . Hoderine . With these exceptions , we believe that all the MSS . name Edwin son of Athelstan . We may note here , that neither the Masonic

poem nor Cooke ' s MS . mentions Edwin at all . Dr . Plot in 1686 first objected to the account of Edwin , and it is clear that Athelstan had no son of the name of Edwin ; and his brother Edwin , or Eadwin the Atheling , was drowned at sea . The learned Dr . Drake , in 1726 , at York , first gave , as we hold , the true solution of the difficulty , viz ., that the Masonic tradition referred to Edwin or Eadwin of the Deira

King of Northumberland , baptized by Paulinus at York in 027 , where he built afterwards a stone church . His residence was also at Auldby , always given as the abode of the pseudo-Edwin . Mr . Wallbran , a learned antiquary of Ripon , held the same opinion , and we see no reason to depart from what we have often said elseu here upon the subject . With regard to the " Charges of Edwin , " just alluded to , they seem to have been first called so by Preston in his edition of 1788 , according to Bro . W . J . Hughan , and thc name has

been followed by others . VVe cannot , however , concede that they are to be found in the Antiquity MS . It may be a fair question , did Preston allude to the so-called Krause " Edwin Charges " r * If so , that would seem to confirm the fact of the existence of an original of Krause ' s Constitution , which we confess we believe in . It will be noted that the words , quoted by Preston , actually occur in Krause . —See Hughan ' s "Old Masonic Charges , " p . 85 . —Kenning ' s Cycloptvdia of Freemasonry .